Tyler Seguin’s Tweets Are Now the Dallas Stars’ Problem

Over the holiday, the Bruins traded Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars which makes the mini Twitter “controversy” that has since emerged … someone else’s problem. On Sunday, Seguin’s account tweeted, then quickly removed the message: “Only steers and queers in Texas, and I’m not a cow,” a reference to the Full Metal Jacket quote (the rest of which is very, very vulgar.)

Screenshot via Yahoo Sports

Seguin later claimed he was hacked (Anthony Weiner really ruined that excuse) and said he’d be shutting down his Twitter account.

The Stars sent out their own statement saying:

In no way, shape or form does the Dallas Stars organization condone or agree with the message that was sent out through Tyler Seguin’s Twitter feed last night. We’ve addressed the issue directly with Tyler and we’ll continue to work on educating our players regarding the importance of their conduct on all forms of social media.

That reads like sort of hastily composed, rote damage control. What message don’t they condone? That Tyler Seguin is gay? That Texas only has cows and gay people (which … does that really need debunking)? This reads to most people like a friend stole Seguin’s phone and made his life difficult by announcing he was gay, an astoundingly irritating prank you see people play on Facebook all the time, and did it in the form of a widely repeated movie quote.

Nevertheless, this fits a pre-existing narrative that Seguin is vaguely insensitive to LGBT issues, and more broadly, too immature for the Bruins organization. In April he appended the phrase “no homo” to a tweet, which required an apology and a conversation with an advocacy group. And the Bruins have had plenty to say about his hard-partying ways to the media in the days surrounding his trade. That gives this silly tweet vastly more traction than it would otherwise deserve.

But, again, as of July 4, this officially became someone else’s problem.